What do I need to do before creating an online business?

positivelymummy

if you are going to run a business from home check your mortage contract details too, (i was advised as some mortage companies have it written in contracts etc that no business is to be run from the home etc) so its worth checking! good luck

Ianharrison2000

To my knowledge you have 3 months to regesiter as self employed before you will get a fine. Might be best to see hwo it goes, then tell them after 3 months, that way if it's a terrible failure no one need know (I'm sure it won't be though).

Ian

ashy_mashy

Some of the wholesalers who I am trying to purchase stock from require that I am a registered company and have a VAT registration number and certificate. Not sure what this why..

I understand that I will be charged a certain % of my turnover, but does it cost anything to get a company and VAT etc registered initially?

username1971

What ever you do if you don’t turn over £62,000 do not register for VAT remember if you are you have to charge it that’s the LAW which will push you prices up. You are just starting out and there is absolutely no need. Take the advice and go and see business link you will have to go on their initial one days course which is a general over view of starting up in business then you can go on the more in depth courses which usually are in the evenings. They are all over the UK and it is absolutely free. There are a few things which are not but they aren’t that expensive either so check them out.
Ring some of these suppliers up and tell them you are just starting out and that you cant register for Vat yet and see what they say. The worst that can happen is they can say no. In which case go somewhere else. You will find one it’s a numbers game

Savvy_Sue

the post above reminds me that we sometimes had this problem when I set up an out of school club: we weren't a business, we didn't have a company or charity registration number, and we certainly weren't paying VAT! If I wanted to open an account that wasn't usually a problem, I just had to send a letter on headed paper explaining our setup.

There were a couple of places who wanted trade references which are difficult to supply initially, so for them I just made payment with order rather than opening a credit account. You might not want to do that, but because I was not selling stock on it didn't really make too much difference to my cashflow and was a lot less hassle!

windswept

"Consider ebay shop first, so you can get started very quickly, with minimum up front costs."

- Ebay can be a very expensive way of doing business - 12 -15% of profits gone on fees, many people are not even covering their fees at the moment - ebay is in a state of chaos, if you don't specialise in a highly visible category, you have virtually no chance as things stand.

"If you set up your own website, there are some standard shopping website packages out there, which cost from around £20/month. This is the most economical way of setting up if you have a standard shopping cart type requirement. You will have additional costs for an internet merchant account (around £20+/month), and a vsp (such as protx or securepay) of around £20/month. So that's a min of £60/month. "

- Mine costs me the grand total of £27 per month, or it will when I finally get secpay/streamline on my site (£10 per month). My site is with "do your own site", imho the best low-cost option there is and perfect for starting out (£17).

Unless you are selling to other (vat registered) businesses, do not register for vat - until you absolutely have to .

It's a £150 fee for set up with streamline - no minimum monthly charge, you only pay (in my case 2.5%) on credit cards and 39p on debits.